35 Essential jQuery Tutorials, Code Chunks and Plugins for Designers
In JS / JS Libraries I'm not ashamed to admit that I really love jQuery, and equally unashamed to admit there are some serious masters out there who totally eclipse anything I can muster up with the library.
So it's for this reason I've rounded up some of the finest jQuery resources to achieve all kinds of things on a web page, from accordions to Flash-like menus to lightboxes, animation and more!
Please note that I've not included any plugins or tutorials that rely on server side code (this will come later), but if you know of a good plugin or tut I've missed, feel free to leave a comment and a link.
Plugins & Code
This really is the daddy of all plugins, so much so it's pretty much a library in its own right! It still relies on jQuery though, but there are heaps of things you can add to your pages with jQuery UI, including a datepicker, dialog box, drag and drop, accordion and tab system. The only thing you'll need to be careful of is that you may have way too much fun with this!
This is another cool collection of desktop-style user interface components, which also includes a suite of charting and graphing tools. Other components include collapsible panels, dialogs, rich text editor, and treeview. Definitely worth checking this one out. There's even a ready-made webmail interface for the programmatically inclined to add build an email system on top of.
This one has been around for a while now but is favoured by a lot of developers due to its versatility in terms of the type of content it can manipulate.It can be used to handle image galleries, iframes and AJAX content.
In an age when apps are more often being built on web technologies, tools such as modal dialog boxes are becoming a necessity, rather than a luxury. SimpleModal is more than just a dialog box generator, you can put forms and content chunks in it too.
One of the longer standing jQuery plugins, which enables you to create easing effects on container elements in an almost Flash-like manner. It's very configurable, and for some ideas about what you can do with it, change the configuration options in the in the drop-down lists in the working demo on the home page.
A plugin which enables table sorting with remarkable ease. On the site you'll find simple implementation instructions plus working demos and documentation. It's designed to work on well-structured HTML tables, which need to include <thead> and <tbody> tags in order to have this plugin work.
Always nice to have the ability to quickly change the look and feel of a website, and with this code snippet your visitors will be able to do just that! There's also a working demo for you to view source on if you need to.
Never one to normally blow my own trumpet, but my tutorial on how to create reliable, intuitive client side validation using jQuery and an easy to implement plugin will see you on your way.
A jQuery plugin intended specifically for paging, this one offers demos and full code samples to get you up and running straightaway.
Probably the best of the more recent jQuery tooltip code snippets around at the moment, with a short and sweet tutorial plus a cool working demo. The tooltip is animated, and comes into view using an interesting combination of fade-in and light-up effects.
This awesome jQuery plugin provides a similar feel to the heavyweight Ext.js. It provides paging, sorting and the ability to choose how many records (rows) are displayed per table page.
An advancement of simple tab creation, enabling you to create tabbed content with a content area that slides in and out of view (whilst making way for other tabbed content, of course!). A little trickier to implement, but once you get going you'll love it!
An unusual use for jQuery here, used to dynamically transform a standard textarea into a custom content editing pane. You can find implementation instructions here, and all in all, it's extremely easy to build into your web page without a great deal of jQuery or JavaScript knowledge.
Another handy script courtesy of the excellent bassistance.de repository of code goodness! This creates a similar effect to the ASP.NET tree view effect, and is handy for apps or sites with hierarchical navigation menus.
Create a Flash-like menu with a background that "follows" your mouse across a horizontal menu. There's also a step-by-step guide to getting the menu set up in terms of both the xHTML/CSS and the jQuery.
It's always nice to have the ability to "fold things away for later". With this plugin, you can accomplish this easily. You can set your elements to start off as either collapsed or opened, and there's also an easy step-by-step implementation guide.
If for any reason you're looking for an embedded colour picker, then this is probably just the job for you. With a working demo, download link and usage example all on the same page, it's easy to get this little script up and running.
Perhaps one of the more leftfield plugins covered here, but this script enables you to create charts from tabular data using the <canvas> element which you can embed into an HTML page easily.
The desire for rounded corner boxes never ceases! And with this plugin, you can create them without images. There are also plenty of other options regarding the general shape of your corners. Definitely worth checking out.
Another common problem solved by jQuery, as this plugin enables you to create equal height columns without having to manually set a fixed height on any of them.
A handy expandable panel code chunk that creates a content area that remembers whether the user has left the panel open or closed on their last visit to the site. Really easy to implement, with an example available here.
Tutorials
This tutorial shows you how to convert a standard <h3>...<div>...<h3>...<div> pattern into a full blown accordion without a great deal of code. It takes a step-by-step approach and makes the otherwise complex seem very simple.
This large, extensive article on Digital Web Magazine is a really good read if you're new to jQuery and have an hour to spare. As you work through the tutorial you'll create a full-blown passenger management system for an airline. Cool or what! Here's the working demo.
OK, so this isn't actually a tutorial in the purest sense, but it includes usage examples of all the main jQuery methods and is ideal for those just getting started with the library.
A full blown tutorial with full explanations of the jQuery code you'll need to create a dynamic table of contents. The TOC built in this tutorial is dependant upon the number of <h2>s you've got in your document (you'll need more than one to follow along).
Another one of mine here, in which you'll be able to create a simple tabbed content area using just jQuery and a relatively short code snippet.
An extensive tutorial that takes you through the full works of developing a menu using the CSS sprites technique, with a dash of jQuery naturally! Written by the ever knowledgeable Dave Shea of Mezzoblue.
This simple cheat sheet is ideal for those who have a little experience of building simple scripts with jQuery, but would like a simple reference in order to perfect the basics (i.e. selectors, CSS properties, DOM manipulation, events). The cheat sheet is available as a PNG image.
This one's quite extensive, and comes in PDF format.
A handy visual intro to jQuery itself, providing a quick view of what you can manipulate with jQuery, plus some examples of handy jQuery code to get you going.
If you've tinkered with jQuery, and have a decent knowledge of JavaScript per se, you can get started creating your own plugins with this helpful starter tutorial.
An altogether slicker, more robust way to create a drop-cap effect for your web pages. This tutorial will talk you through all the steps necessary.
A highly visual way to get started in jQuery without feeling like you're tackling a programmers' manual. There are also some really cool examples here that move way beyond Hello World without putting you through chapter loads of theory in the meantime. There are working examples too.
A tutorial on the excellent CSS Tricks showing you how to build a menu, that when you click a link, dynamically replaces the content within the main content area. You can view a demo here.
This article demonstrates the power of jQuery nicely, by taking an example of some DOM manipulation in standard JavaScript and recreating it using jQuery. It's also a great article for getting to grips with some of the main methods available within jQuery.
